adventures in family, faith, and Down syndrome

My political rant continued.

“Don’t worry,” they tell me. “Tessa has Down syndrome, which is an automatic qualifier. Her services aren’t affected by these changes.”

That is a dangerous line of thought. And it’s SO not the point.

As I shared earlier – this is not just about her. She is one face in the world of disability, but she is not the only face. It’s about taking care of families, taking care of children.

The reality is that there are many, many children who do not have “automatically qualifying diagnoses.” The laundry list of delays that I laid out earlier could be any child, anywhere, with or without Down syndrome. And a choice to leave them to fend for themselves is cruel. It’s inappropriate. It has long term consequences that we cannot even begin to understand.

Once we begin to remove supports for individuals with disabilities, we limit their potential. Once we have told them that they aren’t worth our resources and efforts, we take a step backward in our development as a society. We devalue an entire population.

I won’t stand for it. And I won’t change my message. This has to be stopped.